Request for records concerning COVID-19 testing availability

Christopher Tidmarsh filed this request with the Department of Public Health of Illinois.
Tracking #

1803

Due April 24, 2020
Est. Completion May 4, 2020
Status
Awaiting Response

Communications

From: Christopher Tidmarsh


To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act., I hereby request the following records:

Any and all digital records (including but not limited to emails, text messages, PDF files, social media posts, etc.) concerning a real or potential shortage of COVID-19 testing supplies in Illinois and/or an estimated timeline on when said COVID-19 testing supplies are expected to be in sufficient supply to meet the general public's demand for COVID-19 testing to the degree necessary to alleviate the COVID-19 pandemic in Illinois.

By "COVID-19 testing supplies", I mean any medical supplies necessary for doctors to administer tests to patients either to diagnose the patients with COVID-19, or to determine whether they have already recovered from COVID-19.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Christopher Tidmarsh

From: Christopher Tidmarsh

To whom it may concern:

I would like to amend the part of my Illinois Freedom of Information Act request that reads: "...either to diagnose the patients with COVID-19 or to determine whether they have already recovered from COVID-19."

I would like to change it to: "...either to diagnose the patients with COVID-19 or to determine whether they possess immunity to COVID-19 (such as through antibody tests or any other methods that might be used to test for immunity)."

Sincerely,

Christopher Tidmarsh

From: Department of Public Health

Dear Mr. Tidmarsh,

This email is in regards to your recent Freedom of Information Act request for any and all digital records (including but not limited to emails, text messages, PDF files, social media posts, etc.) concerning a real or potential shortage of COVID-19 testing supplies in Illinois and/or an estimated timeline on when said COVID-19 testing supplies are expected to be in sufficient supply to meet the general public's demand for COVID-19 testing to the degree necessary to alleviate the COVID-19 pandemic in Illinois.

The Department has extended the date in which your records must be provided to May 4, 2020. Section 3(e) of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 ILCS 140, permits the Department to extend the time for response if the request for records cannot be complied with by the public body within the time limits prescribed by the Act without unduly burdening or interfering with the operations of the public body.

Sincerely,

Will Bryant
Illinois Department of Public Health
525 W. Jefferson St., 2nd Floor
Springfield, IL 62761
Office: (217) 524-0789
Email: william.bryant@illinois.gov<mailto:william.bryant@illinois.gov>

State of Illinois - CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this communication is confidential, may be attorney-client privileged or attorney work product, may constitute inside information or internal deliberative staff communication, and is intended only for the use of the addressee. Unauthorized use, disclosure or copying of this communication or any part thereof is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and destroy this communication and all copies thereof, including all attachments. Receipt by an unintended recipient does not waive attorney-client privilege, attorney work product privilege, or any other exemption from disclosure.

From: Christopher Tidmarsh

Hello,

Thank you for letting me know. I look forward to receiving the records whenever it is convenient for you to send them to me.

Sincerely,

Christopher Tidmarsh

From: Department of Public Health

Dear Mr. Tidmarsh,

This email is in regards to your recent Freedom of Information Act request for any and all digital records (including but not limited to emails, text messages, PDF files, social media posts, etc.) concerning a real or potential shortage of COVID-19 testing supplies in Illinois and/or an estimated timeline on when said COVID-19 testing supplies are expected to be in sufficient supply to meet the general public's demand for COVID-19 testing to the degree necessary to alleviate the COVID-19 pandemic in Illinois.

The Department has conducted an electronic search for records potentially responsive to your request using any of the terms "test", "tests", or "testing" with any of the following terms: "shortage" "capacity" "enough" "equipment" "reagent" "swabs" "kits" "diagnostics" "lack". As a result of this search over 3,000 potentially responsive records were identified. It takes DPH staff approximately 3 to 5 minutes to review a record to ensure the record does not contain information we are prohibited from releasing by state and federal law, so in total your requests would require approximately 150 hours of staff time to review. DPH cannot devote such resources to the review of these records without severely burdening our operations, to include responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, to such a degree which outweigh the public interest in the content of records as the shortage of testing supplies has been well documented by the media. Pursuant to Section 3(g) of the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"), 5 ILCS 140, I am offering you the opportunity to discuss your request in the hopes of narrowing the requests down to a manageable level prior to the Department denying your request.

I am working from home so email is the best way to discuss your request, but we can schedule a phone call as well. The Department received a request very similar to yours which provided the search terms we used to conduct the search as we determined the use of these terms to be sufficient and likely to identify records potentially responsive to your request. I have reviewed some of the records which were found by the search, and they are potentially responsive, however the sheer volume of work required to review and redact the records would overwhelm Department staff already fully tasked in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak. We are open to discussing the use more narrow search terms, changing the terms entirely, or if you've sent similar requests to other states, any ideas that facilitated their response.

If I can be of any additional assistance, please contact me.

Sincerely,

Will Bryant
Illinois Department of Public Health
525 W. Jefferson St., 2nd Floor
Springfield, IL 62761
Email: william.bryant@illinois.gov<mailto:william.bryant@illinois.gov>

State of Illinois - CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this communication is confidential, may be attorney-client privileged or attorney work product, may constitute inside information or internal deliberative staff communication, and is intended only for the use of the addressee. Unauthorized use, disclosure or copying of this communication or any part thereof is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and destroy this communication and all copies thereof, including all attachments. Receipt by an unintended recipient does not waive attorney-client privilege, attorney work product privilege, or any other exemption from disclosure.

From: Christopher Tidmarsh

Dear Mr. Bryant,

Thank you for the email. Since you said you received another request very similar to mine, and since it provided the search terms you used to search for documents responsive to my own request, is it possible for me to allow my request to be subsumed under the other request, such that you wouldn't need to conduct a separate search for the documents I requested, but I would still get access to the documents from the other request when they are released? That would seem to me to be the best solution for me to get the documents I am looking for without having to have the Illinois Department of Public Health do any extra work on a separate FOIA request.

Sincerely,

Christopher Tidmarsh

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